Nathan Ake's two moments of brilliance could help define Man City's season
Nathan Ake’s time at Manchester City has hit new heights, with the Dutch defender becoming one of Pep Guardiola’s most important defenders.
The Chelsea academy graduate has made 21 Premier League appearances this season, 17 of which saw him start from the off, a huge improvement on the previous campaign where he only managed 14 league outings all season. The first question is, what has changed to convince Guardiola that Ake can be a key part of his title-chasing side?
We can start by going back to the summer when City recruited another centre-back, Manuel Akanji, meaning Ake had yet another obstacle to overcome in his bid for regular minutes.
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The club sold Oleksandr Zinchenko before signing Spanish youngster Sergio Gomez. Whenever Gomez has been handed minutes it has been clear to many that he has not been entirely up to speed. That's not to say he won’t adapt eventually, but he isn’t the man for the job just now.
But that was fine as the Blues had one of Europe’s very best in Joao Cancelo. Until January, anyway. After Guardiola’s claim that certain individuals in the dressing room were lacking "passion, fire and desire," the Portuguese full-back soon found himself heading out on loan to Bayern Munich.
This left many fans and pundits wondering who City would sign before the transfer window closed. However, the Cancelo replacement did not arrive and City had a huge hole in their squad that seemingly needed filling.
Up stepped Ake. As stated, he had a challenging start to life at City, with opportunities being hard to come by for the 28-year-old. He has had to bide his time and since his opportunity arrived he's hardly put a foot wrong.
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